[csaa-forum] Modern Indian Theatre ed col

[Michael Griffiths]

Modern Indian Theatre: Texts and Performances
deadline for submissions:
June 20, 2024
full name / name of organization:
Arnab Ray, Sibendu Chakraborty
contact email:
arnabra1 at gmail.com<mailto:arnabra1 at gmail.com>
This is a call for papers to be included in the proposed book as chapters. Bloomsbury has shown interest to publish the book. The lists below are indicative and not restrictive. The editors are open to contributions in the field of ‘Modern Indian Theatre’ on playwrights, theatre practitioners, theories, and forms not included in the lists below. Scholars interested to contribute are requested to send their abstracts between 500 and 600 words, with proposed titles, full name/s of contributor/s, and their professional affiliation/s within 20 May 2024. Contributions must be sent to both the editors on their emails.

Dr. Arnab Ray : arnabra1 at gmail.com<mailto:arnabra1 at gmail.com>
Dr. Sibendu Chakraborty: sibenduu at gmail.com<mailto:sibenduu at gmail.com>

In his Introduction to the book Mapping South Asia through Contemporary Theatre: Essays on the Theatres of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka (2014) Ashis Sengupta writes: “‘South Asia’ should mean today a region of immense possibilities and complexities embedded in the ‘affinities’ and ‘contradictions’ of nation, nationality, caste, creed, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, politics, and economics.” The editors of the proposed book would like to begin from this premise, replacing “South Asia” with “India” as a distinct geo-political entity existing since 1947 till today.

What we understand as ‘Indian Theatre’ (as a product of the theatre culture of the soil of the Indian Subcontinent) dates back to the classical era of Sanskrit theatre. E.J. Westlake informs us that theatre in India dates back to the first century CE with Sanskrit drama texts (World Theatre: The Basics, 2017). The authoritative theoretical work of Bharata, Natyasastra, was born of this theatre tradition. This tradition produced classic works like Abhijnanasakuntalam (The Recognition of Shakuntala) and Mrichchhakatika (The Little Clay Cart). South India was the cradle of dance drama forms like Kutiyattam (emerging from Sanskrit drama) and Kathakali. The latter form is one major example of the emergence of the folk theatre tradition in India. By the 14th century folk theatre became the dominant theatre in India, replacing classical Sanskrit theatre that was gasping for its last breath by that time. Some major folk theatre forms that achieved prominence from the 14th to the 19th century were Bhavai, Yakshagana, Chhau, Tamasha, Jatra, Raslila, Ramlila, etc. Many more folk forms were to follow suit.

Modern Indian theatre can be said to be the product of three major influences: Sanskrit (classical), folk (vernacular), and western (mostly European). The British were instrumental in developing theatre in India (in cities like Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras), although the first European influence in Indian drama was felt with the drama productions of the Russian adventurer Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev in Calcutta in 1765. Commercial theatre gained momentum thereafter in the nineteenth century in the Bengali theatre in Calcutta. Parsi theatre in Bombay became highly successful commercially. Popularity of theatre attracted playwrights and theatre practitioners inclined towards the furtherance of the burgeoning cause of nationalism of the colonised people, extending into theatre that was dedicated to socio-political issues. Indian nationalism projected Indian theatre on to historical and mythological themes and forms and gradually the various folk theatre forms were also invoked by theatre practitioners, predominantly in the cities. Thus, several influences spread their tentacles in Indian theatre with the arrival of the twentieth century.

The proposed book intends to study the myriad trends in the modern times in India. The editors of the book intend to define ‘modern’ – for practical reasons – in a temporal sense, restricting it to the whole of the twentieth century, extending into the present millennium. The book intends to read Indian theatre across languages, regions, and cultures. Indian theatre can be seen as simultaneously historicising and mythologising — both in the pre- and post-independence period — as a form of nation-building. Thus, there developed a “theatre of the roots.” Indian theatre has striven in this period to ‘rediscover’ its indigeneity — classical and folk —in both form and content. Tradition has been prioritised in the project of decolonisation. At the same time, it is rooted in the contemporary socio-political issues (like class, caste, gender, and religion) in a form that is conspicuously western-styled realistic-naturalistic. Suresh Awasthi tells us of the “two streams in modern theatre” (Performance Tradition in India, 2001) to explain this Janus-like character of Indian theatre. Indian theatre has been enriched by its classical and folk roots, as well as Western theatre, and by cross-pollination between the various regions, states, and languages.

In conceptualising this volume the editors propose to bring out a book that captures the complex mosaic of Indian theatre. The book will consist of three sections. The first section will be on playwrights and their plays. The second section will be on theatre practitioners and their theatre practices. The third section will be on folk theatre forms as being practised in the ‘modern’ period. The editors prefer each chapter to be theory based.

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Dr. Michael R. Griffiths
Senior Lecturer, English Literatures
School of The Arts, English and Media
Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
Room No. G31 | Building 25
University of Wollongong NSW 2522

W: https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/michael_griffiths
Series Editor, Postcolonial Lives (BRILL Publishing)<https://brill.com/view/serial/POLI?contents=about>

I acknowledge that the Country I work and live on always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. UOW is situated on the unceded sovereign lands of the Dharawal, Wodi Wodi, Yuin, Gundungurra and Dharug peoples. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

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